


Breaking Point

by helsinkibaby



Category: NCIS
Genre: Everybody Knows - The McGee edition, F/M, Het, Romance, Spoilers, inspired by the sneak peak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 08:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16615223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Everyone has a breaking point. Goat yoga is Tim’s.





	Breaking Point

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to get this up before it’s Jossed by the episode tonight!

“Goat yoga?” 

Tim had sworn - sworn - that he was not going to get involved. No matter how much Delilah wanted to know what was going on, no matter how many times Abby Skyped him with the same question. He was not, he swore and meant it, getting in between Ellie and Nick and whatever the hell was going on between them. 

So he ignored the flirting disguised as bickering. Ignored Nick’s completely unsubtle jealousy when Ellie went out on a date that she didn’t even realise was a date with her high school bully. Ignored Ellie’s thinly veiled curiosity when she saw Nick and Annie eating together at the diner, how she couldn’t take her eyes off them, how the furrow on her brow got deeper and her eating got slower. 

He ignored the actual mating dance in the squad room. References to a reset weekend possibly spent together. Ignored how Nick nonchantly blamed Ellie’s bad temper on hunger, how he knew that reading made her happy and how he was totally at ease with admitting that in front of God and Gibbs and anyone who might be in earsight. 

But goat yoga? 

That was his breaking point. 

Nick glanced at him at the question, shrugging his shoulders as he turned his eyes back to the road. “You heard Bishop,” he said. “The hooves are like a little massage.” 

Tim raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s what you’re going with?” 

Nick kept his eyes on the road but Tim didn’t miss how his hands tightened on the wheel. “Also, yoga. Ladies. In Lycra. What’s not to love?”

“Ladies?” Tim saw his opening and went for it. All those years of sitting beside Gibbs in an interrogation room had not been in vain. “Or one lady in particular?”

He almost regretted that question when Nick’s head turned to him so sharply that the car actually swerved a little on the road. Correcting course quickly, Nick’s jaw was set tight when he replied. “What?” Tim had the feeling that he was going for lighthearted. He missed by a mile. Possibly two. “What are you talking about?”

“I think you knew exactly what I’m talking about.” Tim had no intention of letting him off the hook. “You and Bishop.” 

“There is no me and Bishop.” Nick didn’t look happy about it as he shifted in his seat. 

“But you’d like there to be.” 

Nick blew out a “pfft” between his lips. It was probably meant to be scornful. This time it missed by at least three miles. “She’s like my sister,” he told Tim, and Tim couldn’t help it. He laughed. Loudly. 

“Nice try but next time, try saying that to someone who doesn’t have a sister.” Nick shot him a look and Tim just shrugged. “Look, I’ve been here before, all right? It didn’t end well. So if you’re thinking about rule twelve, I’m just here to tell you that there are worse things than breaking one of Gibbs’s rules.” 

There was silence in the car as Nick assimilated that. “I’m going to tell him you said that, you know.” 

It was an empty threat. “No, you’re not.”

“No, I’m not.” Nick sounded strangely resigned. 

“Just think about it,” Tim said as the Naval Yard came in to view. Which was a weird thing to be saying to Nick, who was famous for leaping before he looked. 

Almost as famous as he was for having an answer to everything, but he had no reply to Tim’s suggestion. 

Once upon a time, Tim had wondered what it would take to leave Nick Torres speechless. 

The fact that he’d finally found out should have made him happy. Instead it just made him nervous.


End file.
